Mark C. Brickell

Mark C. Brickell is an influential leader in the derivatives industry. He served as the president of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association from 1988 to 1992.

In 1993 he was a principal author of the influential Group of Thirty study, "Derivatives: Practices and Principles", which suggested that internal risk controls and best-practices at financial institutions, including mark to market, and not government regulation, would facilitate safe and efficient trading of derivatives by the financial industry.

He worked at JP Morgan Securities for nearly 25 years, and was present when credit default swaps were first conceived at a bankers' retreat in Florida in 1994.

"I've known people who worked on the Manhattan Project," says Mark Brickell, who at the time was a 40-year-old managing director at JPMorgan. "And for those of us on that trip, there was the same kind of feeling of being present at the creation of something incredibly important." (Newsweek Magazine, Oct 2008)

As the chief lobbyist for the derivatives industry, in 1994 Brickell led an effort to defeat legislation proposed by Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA) that would have regulated the OTC derivatives industry. Leach proposed the legislation after his staff produced a 900-page study on the market. Other members of the House of Representatives including Henry B. Gonzalez and Edward Markey (D-MA) supported regulation.

In his book Infectious Greed, author Frank Partnoy, who was interviewed by "60 Minutes" in October 2008, recounts the battle over the 1994 legislation, which Brickell and the derivatives industry won.

In 1995 after Baring Brothers, one of England's largest and oldest merchant banks collapsed from the unbridled derivatives trading of a single trader, Brickell was interviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS Television. Brickell explained that Baring didn't have adequate internal controls in place.

In 1998 Brickell wrote a letter to Congress opposing derivatives regulations.

In 2003, President Bush nominated Mark Brickell to become the chief regulator at OHFEO (over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), after firing Clinton appointee Armando Falcon. Congress held hearings on his nomination (http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/108s/95603.pdf), but it was subsequently withdrawn when opponents pointed out that Brickell had led the charge against regulation in the derivatives industry and questioned whether he could be effective as a regulator.

Brickell currently serves as the CEO of Blackbird, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based company that enables real-time electronic trading of OTC derivatives of all types. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. (Company website)

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